budget screens

Guest

can anybody point me towards a good price on a manual 6 foot screen.. shop prices seem to start at £400 and yet mail order starts at £250 and less.also are they designed to permantly fix to ceiling or wall or can you buy a screen and tripod for the home, which is preferred ps any thing i should be aware of in so called "budget"screens. many thanks all

Well-known Member

Co-incidently, I've just received some quotes for screens from Gordon including manual pull-down and electric in the 5' to 6' width range. They start at around £150 for manual 1.0 gain to around £500 for Owl electric 1.2 gain to around £1200 for another company electric 1.3 gain (sorry, the quote is at home).

These were for screens with the housing attached to the wall or ceiling. Don't know about portable - sorry.

Things to watch out for include "fold" lines in thin material. The cheaper screens have the end taped to the spindle in the housing. When the screen is retracted the material rolls up and forms a small crease.

Cheers,
Liam

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"Do you hear that, Mr. Anderson? That is the sound of inevitability."

Standard Member

I bought a 6' manual screen from owl systems which cost £255 + vat. It comes in a long thin box which sits on the floor and you simply pull it up when you need it - it's about 7' high. The rest of the time it sits behind the settee completely out of sight. It sounds as though this might be what you need.

Well-known Member

Liam has piped me to this one. Gordon has been a busy man, helping me as well. In fact he did look a little stressed when I caught up with him on Monday. My situation is a little unusual in that her indoors does not want a permanent screen or projector installed in the front room, so portable or semi portable is what I might be forced to go with. I am therefore looking at screens (either manual or motorized) that can be deployed into the room when needed. There appears to be several options.

Tripod based screens like Draper unit are available but are clumsy. A couple of weights of tripods are possible from Draper. Standard rolling screen with the problems of fold line Liam has explained.

Manual screens like Draper Luma. This can be ceiling or wall mounted and has eyes for hanging (Luma only). I.e it can brought into the room and hung on two hooks. Fold line issues.

Draper Road Warrior (reps travelling screen). Sits on floor and pulls up out of a box (£600). Quite neat but expensive for Home Cinema but may be the perfect solution for my problem, if we can perforate the black bottom section to make it acoustically transparent (not suitable for screen area with LCD / DMD). Folding?

Stewart Luxus Communicator manual tab tension screen (£950). Should (in theory) avoid folding issues. Well regarded material. This also has mounting eyes for hanging, as well as the usual ceiling / wall mounts. But what a price for quality. The bee knees by all accounts.

All screen sizes are roughly 80 inch diagonal (say 66 inch wide) and prices quoted are approximate, for comparison purposes only. Material is the more standard 1to 1.3 gain material. Advice from Gordon and others is general be very cautious re 1.5 to 2 gain material. This was not because of angle, hot spots etc but was on more fundamental flatness issues / difficult to work with / other problems though it does have its uses (advice for folding / rolling screens not fixed screens).